So we went to check out the dumpling place today. We walked in at 1:30 and they told us they were closed -- I was confused b/c there were people in there eating, and then they explained they ran out of food! So, I guess I'll wait a few days before I try again. :)

i'm sorry, i don't understand your anthropomorphizing "narrative."bourdain and his producers choose the narrative. therefore, they are responsible if bourdain gets in its way. i take it you think this is a bad thing, which is fine.i suppose an argument could be made on camera talent often gets in the way of "narratives" they're trying to explain.giving examples, when said talent has chosen the narrative to begin with, becomes much harder, i think.

and, if you de facto don't like bourdain and his "schtick," there's no show on koreatown (or anywhere else for that matter)that's going to work for you.

I finally watched the episode last night (since I am taping this).I had watched the first episode on Myanmar earlier, and found it seriously off-putting. I have followed Bourdain's several different shows for some time now, so was eagerly anticipating it. But as he said in his interview on Farid Zaqaria's GPS - this show, and this outlet, is letting him talk about non-food related issues more than food.

Just to compare, Luke Nguyen, the Ozzie Vietnamese chef did a recent series called Greater Mekong - and after seeing Bourdain's opening show on Myanmar, I went back to watch Nguyen's shows on Myanmar again. They are so much better - the local B-shots are significantly better, the food depicted is much better. There is some commentary on the politics and culture, but not at the expense of the personality of the host.http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/lukesmeko...(Unfortunately, some of these episodes are not viewable online in North America

)

In the Myanmar episode, there is a long sequence of Bourdain in one of the run down seedy apartment complexes, where of course nothing is happening - he is not going into someone's house, or there is something being cooked in the courtyard. It is just him looking out over the inner courtyard while his voice narrates all the horrors of the past repression.

For my personal taste, this is the worst of the TV series from Bourdain that I have seen! YMMV.

Here's the thing about NR and PU, more than a good part of the shows *are* about Bourdain, and not the locales.

There's nothing necessarily wrong with that approach, unless you either (1) don't care to watch Bourdain and/or (2) care more about the locale in question.

I'll take an extreme example as a counterpoint. Say what you want about Fieri and DD&D, but that show is less about Guy and more about the places he is showcasing vis-a-vis either of Bourdain's productions (NR or PU).

And to Guy's credit, there is definitely more material for Guy to use on-screen (for better or worse) than Bourdain to draw eyeballs to the TV screen.